Shining Bright for a Full Decade Our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom Celebrates Its 10th Year

Shining Bright for a Full Decade

Our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom

Celebrates Its 10th Year

Lisa Patrick

The Ashland Beacon

Each year, the I Believe Foundation hosts the Our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom for local high school students with disabilities. It’s open to all people with special needs from ages 15–21. Though the first prom was held twelve years ago, this year marks the 10th anniversary because the prom had to be put on hold in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID and other illnesses.

This year, the I Believe Foundation went big with a “Bright Lights, Big City” theme. The room was decorated with cardboard cutouts of big city skylines, and fiber optic centerpieces adorned all of the tables. KayMag Photography was set up with a backdrop of tall buildings and bright lights. They donate their time and photography skills to the Our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom every year and provide their pictures to the attendees for free.

The students and their escorts were announced as they came through a sword arch provided by the Boyd County High School JROTC. They were then seated, and dinner was served to them by volunteers from around the tri-state area. Then it came time for dancing, and students with special needs always dance like no one is watching. They have the best time.

Some schools had students attend for the first time. Students from Cabell Midland, South Point, Huntington High School, and Dawson-Bryant came this year, and their students had a great time dancing the night away. Students also returned from East Carter, Ashland, Russell, Raceland, Boyd County, Greenup County, Fairview, Open Door, and some homeschool students joined everyone else on the dance floor. Music was provided for free by DJMJ Entertainment.

Hannah Lyon, an FMD/MSD teacher from Greenup County High School, accompanied her students to prom this year along with high school principal Anthony Thompson. This was the first time attending for both of them. Lyon said that her students were “having a blast.” The Our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom is “a great opportunity for them to be able to have fun with their peers and our community. They’ve got to enjoy themselves and get away from everyday life.” Lyon stated that “there’s just not events like this often.”

“Just to see the community get together like this is amazing. It’s not just Ashland and Boyd County, it’s people from West Virginia and people from Ohio,” said Lyon. “To see our principal be able to come out and enjoy events like this and have all these volunteers and all these people come together for students with disabilities has been really amazing.”

Lyon paired each of her students with two senior peer mentors to attend the prom, and one of the students was escorted in by Principal Thompson. Lyon was so excited to “see my students have a place where they feel like they belong is so refreshing because they don’t often get that. It’s just heartwarming.”